Your View

Another birther movement?

8/28/2013

Ted Cruz is the first Hispanic to be elected to the U.S. Senate from Texas. He wants to be President of the United States. But is he eligible? He was born in Calgary, Canada. His father was Cuban and had fought for Castro. Ted Cruz went to Harvard and was the editor of the Harvard Law Review. (Where have we heard that before?) If there is a “birther movement” against Ted Cruz for President, I will join it!

Gary Thelen–West Des Moines

Not slick and shiny but free

Here’s a little more fodder about the Register. Last week (Aug. 16-18), I was in Waterloo to visit relatives and attend a class reunion. While there, I picked up Friday’s copy of the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier to catch up on the news. In that paper was the next week’s listings for the television programs. It was not the slick, shiny paper the Register was using, nor did it have all the extraneous stuff, but it was free. Oh, by the way, it did have the listings for all the television outlets in Iowa, as if I care about any outside central Iowa.

Paul Ehlert–Carlisle

We will print it

On Aug. 12 the Des Moines Register published an editorial with the premise that Republicans should stop fighting against Obamacare. Since I am one of millions who are vehemently opposed to this horrible law, I sent a letter to the editor of the Register. They promptly replied, stating their newspaper requirements for printing my letter and stating that if chosen to be published it would probably appear within two weeks of being received by the Register. Since two weeks have expired and it hasn’t been published, I’m hoping that you will find it worthwhile to appear in your weekly publication.

The reason I mentioned Mark Challis is because his letters appear frequently in the Register and have appeared at least once in your publication. I am trying to point out that just because someone makes a statement about something, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is accurate. I was a Democrat for the first 34 years of my life but changed for the same reason that Ronald Reagan did — although I am now an independent. In my opinion, Mark Challis’ letters to the editor are extremely far left, and I have reason to doubt that he was ever a Republican as he claimed in one of his letters recently.

Here is my letter that The Des Moines Register has apparently decided not to print:

You have appealed to the GOP to refrain from trying to get the (Un)Affordable Care Act repealed, and I would like to know what you have to say about the similarities I am going to draw between the Prohibition law and the law known commonly as Obamacare.

1. Law of the land: Prohibition — was; Obamacare — is;

2. Unpopular and unworkable: Prohibition — was; Obamacare — is.

The Constitutional amendment establishing Prohibition was repealed by the Roosevelt administration, so what is the problem with those of us (the majority) trying to get a law repealed that will enable the government to have even more control over our lives than it already has? This is the reason I left the Democrat party many years ago, because I could see that it was primarily interested in having power and control. Incidentally, I don’t believe for one minute that Mark Challis was ever a Republican. The Democrat’s goal is to have a single-payer system which will devastate the insurance companies, because they must make a profit while the government doesn’t have to, and they are very successful in that department.

James W. Faulkner–West Des Moines

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